Does Education Matter?: Myths About Education and Economic Growth

by Alison Wolf

"Education, education, education" has become an obsession for politicians and the public alike. It is seen as an economic panacea: an engine for growth and prosperity. But is there a link between increased spending on higher eductaion and economicgrowth? Professor Alison Wolf takes a critical look at successive governments' education policy and challenges many of the tenets of received wisdom: there are no economic reasons for spending more on higher education in order to stimulate growth. The conclusion of this devastating book is that a large proportion of the billions poured into vocational training and university provision might be better spent on teaching the basics at primary school.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction, Economics

356 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2002

About the author

Alison is a British author, academic and journalist, who also lived and worked for 10 years in the US, and manages to return there frequently. Her day job is in central central London, at King's College London, where she runs a public management Masters programme; but she also presents programmes for BBC Radio (Radio 4)and writes widely for national newspapers and magazines. Her most recent book, The XX Factor, was 'born of a sudden realization. People kept talking about 'women' as though we all had vast amounts in common. But this is completely wrong. The arrival on the planet of 70 million graduate, professional women has changed our societies from top to bottom, in ways we are only just starting to understand. Today's professional women are historically unique, and the book is about them. Since I'm one of them, it is also about my and my generation's lives. But it also about the differences between these 70 million and other women, and the widening gulf that spells the end of sisterhood.'

Reviews

[Nrr · Rating 4 out of 5]

Deeply depressing, slightly out of date, and repetitive in the way social sciences seem to be.